422 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bellwood, Pa.— "What is the best mode of 

 treatment for sonr honey? Will it make 

 vinegar? F. M. Glasgow. 



[The only remedy we know of is jto Ijeep 

 it till needed, and then feed to the bees; 

 they will remove it from the cells and make 

 it sweet in a little while. It is worth too 

 muc'ii to make into vinegar, still it Jean be 

 done— one part of honey to five of water 

 will be the proportions.- Ed.] 



Wethersfield, Ct., Oct. 27, 1877.— "In the 

 season of 1875 I purchased queens of H. Al- 

 ley; some were good, but not all. One was 

 detained in the post-office for 13 days, the 

 clerks failing to recognize my address on 

 the package; but she was received alive. 

 In Sept. 1 received from him 3 queens; one 

 was dead when received, there was no 

 delay this time, and one was a poor hybrid. 

 I wrote him the facts at the time, expecting 

 that he would make the two queens good. 1 

 received this short and perhaps singular 

 reply: 'Queens are played out for the sea- 

 son.' Not feeling satisfied with Mr. A., I 

 sent orders for queens to other parties, the 

 next spring. Tliis displeased Mr. A., and 

 now he does not recognize my claim, but 

 sends me 7io little abuse whenever I remind 

 him of it." H. L. Lankton^. 



Sumter Co., Ala., Oct. 11, 1877.— "Will it 

 do to keep honey in tin? Do drones feed 

 themselves? Will honey sour when not 

 extracted till capped? Can you refer me 

 to a honey market? What kind of barrels 

 are best to ship honey in?" 



A Subscriber. 



[Tin cans are good honey vessels. Drones 

 feed themselves. Such honey will some- 

 times sour; when it does, feed back to the 

 bees. New Yorlc is your nearest good mar- 

 ket. Thurber & Co. will buy all you have 

 for sale. Any eood, hard wood barrels, if 

 clean, will do.— Ed.] 



Borodino, N.Y.— I notice in the Report of 

 the National Convention that Mr. Betsinger 

 stated that black bees stored the honey that 

 was awarded the Gold Medal; thereby leav- 

 ing the Convention and your readers to con- 

 clude that I keep black bees. This is not 

 so; I have not had a colony of black bees in 

 five years. 1 should be exceedingly sorry 

 to have the idea prevail that black bees pro- 

 duced better honey than the Italians, and 

 that their honey was so much superior as to 

 have the Gold Medal awarded to it, when 

 apiarists of the 19th century have taken so 

 much trouble to import pure Italians. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Starkville, N. Y., Nov. 22, 1877.— "I have sold 

 my honey to Messr.s. Thurber & Co., of New 

 York. Instead of takini? the 30 days for pay- 

 ment as I ofTered, they sent me a check for the 

 entire amount. It is a pleasure to do business 

 with those wlio do as they agree to. but they 

 have done even better. Their extensiv^o busi- 

 ness seems to bear testimony to tlie fact that 

 business relations so satisfactorily established 

 are more apt to prove permanent and profita- 

 ble to all concerned. It is a pleasure for me 

 to recommend them to enquiring bee-men." 

 P. H. Elwood. 



^otes mill Qitcvits^ 



CONDUCTED BY 



Prof. A. J. Cook, Lansing, Mich. 



Henry Station, Tenn., Sept. 29, 1877.— 

 "Enclosed find a flower of the smartweed 

 that produces honey so plentifully. And 

 also another plant— please name them." 

 J. P. Parker. 



The former is polygonum iucaratum. 

 It is nearly related to smartweed. The lat- 

 ter is euputorum or bone-set. The speci- 

 men is too poor to tell the species. 



Galesburg, 111., Sept. 21, 1877.— " Enclosed 

 send sample of a wild plant, on which I saw 

 a lot of bees at work yesterday. Were they 

 gathering honey or pollen? It has a square 

 liard stem; the top is bushy and it blooms 

 profusely." H. B. 



It is scrophularla nodosa. They were 

 no doubt getting both lioney and pollen 

 from it. It is too large and coarse a plant, 

 with flowers too few and small to be very 

 valuable to cultivate for bees. 



Fanning Co., Tex., Sept. 21, 1877.— "I send 

 a sprig of our best fall honey-producing 

 plant. What is it? I have taken 85 fts. or 

 honey from one colony, and it is full again. 

 I shall have 30 lbs. more." S. S. Lvday. 



Its name is Eupatorium— the species un- 

 certain— it is a poor specimen. 



Jennings Co., Ind., Sept. 26, 1877.— "We 

 have had the best honey season for the past 

 month that I ever saw. I enclose a speci- 

 men of our best honey plant. Bees are 

 storing largely from it." Wm. Martix. 



It is an aster— the specimen has no lerves. 

 Specimens should contflin not only all 

 kinds of leaves, but the leaves should be 

 spread so as to show when dried. Some of 

 these plants were such poor specimens that 

 my coleague. Prof. W. J. Beal, one of the 

 very best botanists in the country, could 

 not indefy them. 



Union Co., 111., Oct. 13, 1877.— "I enclose 

 a specimen of our best fall honey-producing 

 plant. It begins to bloom just before the 

 golden-rod ceases, and continues till hard 

 frost. The honey is white and I think just 

 as good as clover honey. What is it?" 



E. B. Barker. 



It is one of the species of 50 or 60 asters 

 that grow east of the Mississippi River. 

 They are all good honey-producers. 



Libertyville, Mo., Nov. 8, 1877.— "Dear 

 Sir: Enclosed lind seed and hull from a 

 stalk about 2}4 to 33^ ft. high, white flower, 

 blooms in Sept. What is it? Bees did 

 tolerably well here. I had over 100 lbs. of 

 comb honey from one colony of Italians, 

 having a daughter of one of Dadant's im- 

 ported queens." J. B. Dines. 



It is a species of aster— a good plant for 

 honej% 



